5 Key Ingredients for High Converting Hotel Websites

A Toluna survey of over 2,000 consumers discovered that 53% of people found and booked their holiday online. Another 30% researched online first, and then booked their reservations offline. This means over 80% of potential guests research their hotel and travel options online.

That research shows that the stronger your hotel’s online presence is, the better your hotel’s business will be.

How do you go about making that presence stronger? To solidify your online presence, you need a stellar hotel website that’s capable of converting curious visitors into galvanized guests.

So below are 5 essential ingredients for a high converting hotel website that piques potential guests’ interest, overcomes objections, and fills up rooms.

Let’s go.

1. Reviews That Breed Trust

Reviews are an absolute must for any highly converting hotel website.

This is because, unfortunately, 75% of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth. However, 87% of people feel more confident in their decisions when they read reviews. Even better, over 95% say they find the reviews’ portrayal “accurate of the actual experience.”

Look at your reviews. Do they have an easy-to-read format with the kind of information your guests will be looking for? Here’s an example from Net Affinity to get you started:

2. Landing Pages That Sparkle

This can be a big conversion-killer. Your homepage may be fantastically laid out and full of beautiful images, but ultimately it just isn’t targeted enough. Home pages are trying to appeal to all your potential guests: that’s their job!

Landing pages, on the other hand, are specifically targeted to segments of your customers. You can have a landing package for a specific vacation package, another for an over-55 offer, and another one inviting people going to a nearby concert to book their stay at your hotel.

Directing traffic to a powerful landing page grounds your hotel website. It’s what captures your potential guests’ curiosity, grabs their attention, and gets your visitor to book while their interest is hot.

Software company Axway boosted ROI by 291%, and saved $100,000 per year by customising and improving their landing pages.

When testing landing pages against generic webpages, Dell has seen conversion increases as high as 300%.

Looking for more info on making your landing pages sparkle? Check out our detailed guide here.

3. An Intuitive Design

Here’s a site from an article written to tell designers what not to do:

The site does a few things wrong, but the main mistakes are:

The text is incredibly small and close together

The page is incredibly busy

There’s no sense of direction

There’s nothing intuitive about the layout

When it comes to your hotel website, you want to avoid these mistakes at all costs.

An effective hotel site will always have the end goal in mind. It adapts to the decision-making process of potential guests. You want to let your guests browse instinctively, without mental strain.

5. Story Driven Images

In the 1990s, Italian neuro-psychologists were studying the motor neuron activities of Macaque monkeys. By implanting electrodes on the monkey’s brain, they observed which areas of the brain activated when performing different actions.

One day, while reaching for his lunch, unusual monitor activity caught the attention of a researcher:

The area of the monkey’s brain that would normally react to reaching out for food–the ventral premotor cortex–fired up.

But the monkey wasn’t doing anything. He was just watching the researcher reach for his food.

This was a great find for the scientific community. It was direct evidence that we do not always use logical thought to process or predict other people’s actions. Instead–as later studies revealed–we feel them through mirror neurons.

So why are we telling you this?
Stories pack a hefty emotional punch that makes them more “mentally sticky” than plain facts and statements. Essentially, our minds light up and respond – emotionally, intelligently, empathetically and otherwise – when we read fiction, watch movies or otherwise consume stories. That means that stories can have an effect similar to the triggering of mirror neurons.

When you consider that 67% of consumers consider clear, detailed images to be very important and carry more weight than the product information and customer ratings, having a strong visual story is a no brainer.

To tell enticing visual stories that guests remember…

Ensure that your images are relevant to your value proposition. Improving image relevancy can boost conversions by up to 18%.

Make your images self-persuasive. Don’t just throw up an image of your spa or beach without thinking. Ask yourself how your image can get your potential guest to feel like he’s having a blast at your spa or beach.

Conclusion

The 5 ingredients mentioned above are essential for a hotel site that generates bookings.

With that in mind, how do you know if your images tell a meaningful story? How do you know if your value proposition is persuasive? How do you know where potential guests are struggling on your site?

The key is testing.

By constantly testing, you remove guesswork from the equation. With data on your side, you’re able to scientifically squeeze more ROI out of your hotel site.

What do you think makes for a hotel website that converts like crazy? Tell us in the comments below.

Focused exclusively on the hotel sector, Net Affinity has collated the brightest, most commercially focused, experienced and passionate team of online marketers, account managers, designers and developers whose combined skill set ensures our clients online success and continued growth.
We created this blog because we wanted to share our expertise with you, and offer you the knowledge that over 15 years experience in the hotel industry has given us.

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[…] these things, way to go! If you’re wondering whether your website is where it should be, here are 5 key ingredients for high converting hotel websites. For advice on OTAs, here’s a compilation of great pieces on […]

[…] things, excellent. If you’re wondering whether your website is where it should be, here are 5 key ingredients for high converting hotel websites. For advice on OTAs, here’s a compilation of great pieces on […]